I'm afraid it does have to be annoying. The law says we're not allowed to store any non-essential cookies on your computer until you have explicitly opted to allow us to. Any website that assumes first, and asks second, is technically illegal.
Perversely, to record the fact that you don't want us to store non-essential cookies we have to store... ...a cookie! Then, if you delete all cookies to avoid being tracked, we have to ask you again for your consent!
Correct, the law does not stop data sharing in any way. In fact it encourages people to click "Allow All Cookies" just to get rid of the popup!mjr wrote: The GDPR cookie opt-in law is not good law because it has not achieved the desired effect of reducing data-sharing and naughty programmers have subverted it by complying in annoying ways with pop-ups, hard-to-find "decline" buttons and dancing bears.
Developers would much rather not have to annoy their website visitors!
I really don't know. I don't think the ICO know either. It's a horrible, annoying, unenforceable, pointless mess. Meanwhile, advertisers like Google are working on clever ways to track you via other means (such as browser "fingerprints").mjr wrote: Having a consent request which doesn't display on non-JavaScript browsers is not complying with the law, is it? Of course, there are thousands of websites ahead of you in the firing line for that mistake. The ICO should never be short of work as long as this law exists!